Yemen : The #ForgottenWar

As it was for Syria in a time, Yemen is absolutely forgotten.Yet, Yemen is at war, a civil war, and a war led by Saudi Arabia, its powerful neighbor.

First, let’s make a point on the civil war: after the “Arab Spring” (yes, there was a Yemeni Spring, even unknown…), President Saleh resigned in 2011, without violence.

But it revealed that Yemen is not a real country, on a political point of view: it is a territory, a land, shared by different tribes, who have nothing in common, except the land they live in. The main tribe is the Houthi. The minority , in the South, is the Arab one.

In 2015, the Houthi pretended to direct the country, being the majority: the others refused; to this civil war it must be added the presence (in some regions only) of Al Qaeda .

The terrorist organization, in this part of the Arab World, is called AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula); in the Maghreb, is it AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb).AQAP is an actor in the Yemeni War.So, Yemen is weakened by multiple facts in 2015.

But this weakness has been exploited by its neighbor, Saudi Arabia, under the pretext to fight AQAP and preserve Islam from terrorism.

The pretext was good, from the Kingdom where is Mecca, the sanctuary of all Muslims.

But to fight by sending rockets on Yemeni led quickly to a disaster. Saudi Arabia has many weapons, sold by the UK and the USA; the kingdom is rich, and can pay; moreover, the deal weapons /oil is a good deal for everyone. Against this trade of armaments, there were many petitions, and I signed and shared them.

And Yemeni? It is a poor population, living in a territory constituted most of desert. To fight, they have their bravery. Against the powerful arms of their neighbor, it means that they die shooting “Allah Akbar!”. Faith versus rockets: this is Yemen versus Saudi Arabia.

Those who fight are not employed to work, but farming is not a useful work in the country: it needs to import food and drinkable water; but it lacks money for it.

According to the World Bank, Yemen is in the poorer countries.

Due to the duration of the War led by Saudi Arabia, the World Food Program has estimated the needs to avoid famine in Yemen.The map of the header is of 2016: in 2017, think of the situation.